Rebuild Palmyra Dragway!!

Att: Michelle Landry MP, George Christensen MP, Jim Pearce MP & Mayor Greg Williamson
We are petitioning you on behalf of the Palmyra Drag Racing Club. Our non for profit organisation owns and operates the Palmyra Drag Strip just to the west of Mackay City Gates.
2018 will see the club celebrate the 50th year of competition at our club owned and operated facility. We believe that our club is the oldest club owned and operated Drag Strip in Australia and has continuously been sanctioned by the Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) The club up to now have managed to provide to local community with a complex where drivers can test and drive their cars and bikes in a controlled environment. This is why some of our events are called and aimed at “Keep the Speed off the Streets”.
The current Management Committee of the club are made up of current and previous Mackay business owners and find themselves in the unenviable position of asking for help to upgrade the facility to the current sanctioning body’s requirements. The facility has a racing surface that is 27 years old and requires replacement and improvements to the safety barriers are also required.
Due to these requirements the Management committee, due to safety concerns, have had to reduce competition at the venue from 1/4 mile racing to 1/8 mile racing. This for a club with almost 50 years as a 1/4 mile racing venue was a hard but necessary decision.
The last couple of years have seen the club continue to try and go it alone to upgrade the facility but reality has hit us hard and we are now in a position where all the work done to date could lead to nothing without assistance.
The facility is currently used by a local company for motorcycle driver training and with more improvements to the site this could easily be extended to vehicle driver training something that would be advantageous to our local area.
The major works that are required at our facility are:
1) Drainage works and safety fence upgrades in the braking area.
2) Resurfacing of the racing surface for 400 metres
The club has the ability as it has shown over the past 49 years have shown to maintain the facility but major capital expenditure of this nature is beyond our ability to finance.
It would be a loss to our local area and regional Queensland for this facility to slowly wither and die. With support we can continue to provide a facility that offers young people from the age of 8 years old to us older members of the community a safe and controlled environment that can assist in improving road safety in our region.